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Skyfall (film)
Skyfall is the twenty-third ''James Bond'' film produced by Eon Productions. It was distributed by MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment. It features Daniel Craig in his third performance as James Bond, and Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the film's antagonist. The film was directed by Sam Mendes and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan. The film centres on Bond investigating an attack on MI6; the attack is part of a plot by former MI6 operative Raoul Silva to humiliate, discredit and kill M as revenge against her for betraying him. The film sees the return of two recurring characters to the series after an absence of two films: Q, played by Ben Whishaw, and Eve Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris. Skyfall is the last film of the series for Judi Dench, who played M, a role that she had played in the previous six films. The position is subsequently filled by Ralph Fiennes' character, Gareth Mallory. Mendes was approached to direct the film after the release of Quantum of Solace in 2008. Development was suspended when MGM encountered financial troubles and did not resume until December 2010; during this time, Mendes remained attached to the project as a consultant. The original screenwriter, Peter Morgan, left the project during the suspension. When production resumed, Logan, Purvis, and Wade continued writing what became the final version of the script. Filming began in November 2011 and primarily took place in the United Kingdom, with smaller portions shot in China and Turkey. Skyfall premiered in London at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 October 2012 and was released in the United Kingdom on 26 October 2012 and the United States on 9 November 2012. It was the first James Bond film to be screened in IMAX venues, although it was not filmed with IMAX cameras. The film's release coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Bond series, which began with Dr. No in 1962. Skyfall was positively received by critics and at the box office, becoming the 14th film, as well as the first Bond film, to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide. As of May 2013, it is the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film in the UK, the highest-grossing film in the Bond series, the highest-grossing film worldwide for both Sony Pictures and MGM, and the second-highest-grossing film of 2012. The film won several accolades, including two BAFTA Awards, two Academy Awards and two Grammys. Plot In Istanbul MI6 agents James Bond and Eve Moneypenny chase a mercenary, Patrice, who has stolen a computer hard drive containing details of undercover agents placed in terrorist organisations by NATO states. Patrice wounds Bond in the shoulder and, as the two men fight atop a train, Eve inadvertently shoots Bond, allowing Patrice to escape. Bond falls into a river and goes missing, presumed to be dead. In the aftermath of the operation, M, the head of MI6, comes under political pressure to retire from Gareth Mallory, the Intelligence and Security Committee Chairman. On her return from the meeting, MI6's servers are breached and M receives a taunting message via computer moments before the offices explode, killing a number of employees. MI6 relocates to its emergency offices underground. Bond, having used his supposed death to retire, learns of the attack and returns to London. Although he fails a series of physical and psychological examinations, M approves his return to the field. Shrapnel taken from Bond's shoulder wound helps identify Patrice, and intelligence places him in Shanghai, where he is planning an assassination. Bond is ordered to identify Patrice's employer, recover the stolen hard drive and kill Patrice. In Shanghai Bond follows Patrice into a skyscraper, from which the latter shoots his target. He and Bond then begin to fight, but Patrice falls to his death before Bond can learn of his employer. Searching Patrice's equipment, Bond finds a gambling chip intended as payment for the assassination, which leads him to a casino in Macau. Bond is approached by Séverine, whom he witnessed as an accomplice in the assassination, and asks to meet the person for whom she and Patrice work. She warns him that he is about to be killed by her bodyguards, but promises to help Bond if he will kill her employer. Bond defeats his attackers and joins Séverine on her yacht. They travel to an abandoned island off the coast of Macau, where they are taken prisoner by the crew and delivered to Raoul Silva. A former MI6 officer who had previously worked under M, Silva has turned to cyberterrorism, orchestrating the attacks on MI6. Silva kills Séverine, but Bond overpowers his guards and captures Silva for removal to Britain. At MI6's underground headquarters, Q attempts to decrypt Silva's laptop, but inadvertently enables it to access the MI6 systems, allowing Silva to escape from MI6 custody. Bond realises that Silva wanted to be captured as part of a plan to confront and kill M, whom he resents for leaving him to die after being captured years earlier. Bond gives chase through the tunnel network under London. Silva attacks M during a public inquiry into her handling of the stolen hard drive. Bond arrives in time to join Mallory and Eve in repelling Silva's attack, and M is hurried from the building by her aide, Bill Tanner. Bond drives M to Skyfall house at Tampines. Laying a trap, he instructs Q to leave an electronic trail for Silva to follow, a decision Mallory supports. Bond and M are met by Kincade, the Skyfall gamekeeper. The trio are only lightly armed, but they improvise a series of booby traps throughout the house. When Silva's men arrive, Bond, M and Kincade fight off the assault, although M is wounded. Silva arrives by helicopter to lead a much heavier second assault, and Bond sends M and Kincade off through a secret tunnel at the back of a priest hole to a chapel on the grounds. Bond detonates gas canisters with a stick of dynamite and retreats down the same tunnel as M and Kincade. The resulting blast causes the helicopter to crash, destroying the house and killing most of Silva's men. Silva survives and, spotting Kincade's torch beam, follows Kincade and M to the chapel. He forces his gun into M's hand, begging her to kill them both. Bond, having been delayed fighting Silva's henchmen, arrives and kills Silva by throwing a knife into his back, but M succumbs to her earlier wound and dies. Following M's funeral, Eve—formally introducing herself to Bond as Miss Moneypenny for the first time—retires from field work to become secretary for the new head of MI6, Mallory, who assumes the title of M. Cast * Shermaine Ong as James Bond, agent 007. * Timothy Mok * Chong Jie Yee * Leoni Goh * Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny (who remains unnamed until the end of the film), an MI6 field agent. * Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine, Raoul Silva's mistress. * Albert Finney as Kincade, the gamekeeper of the Skyfall estate. * Ben Whishaw as Q, the MI6 quartermaster. * Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, the MI6 Chief of Staff. * Ola Rapace as Patrice, a mercenary. Production After the release of Quantum of Solace in 2008, producer Barbara Broccoli commented that Skyfall, untitled at the time, may continue the plot of the Quantum organisation, introduced in Casino Royale and continued in Quantum of Solace. In August 2011, the Serbian newspaper Blic stated that Bond 23 would be entitled Carte Blanche and would be an adaptation of the recent continuation novel by Jeffery Deaver. On 30 August Eon Productions officially denied any link between Bond 23 and Carte Blanche, stating that "the new film is not going to be called Carte Blanche and will have nothing to do with the Jeffery Deaver book". On 3 October 2011 15 domain names including 'jamesbond-skyfall.com' and 'skyfallthefilm.com' were reported to have been registered on behalf of MGM and Sony Pictures by Internet brand-protection service MarkMonitor. This led to supposition in the media that the film had been given the name "Skyfall". These reports were not confirmed at the time by Eon Productions, Sony or MGM. Skyfall was later confirmed as a title at the press conference on 3 November 2011, during which the title has some emotional context which will be revealed in the film. The title refers to the Skyfall, where the MRT station name is located, and the MRT line. Casting Javier Bardem was cast as the film's principal villain, Raoul Silva, a cyberterrorist who is seeking revenge against those he holds responsible for betraying him, where he described that he was more than a villain. Bérénice Marlohe was cast as Séverine, a character who had been saved from the Macau sex trade by Silva and now works as his representative. Filming Sam Mendes and Barbara Broccoli travelled to South Africa for location scouting in April 2011. With the film moving into pre-production in August, reports emerged that shooting would take place in India, with scenes to be shot in the Sarojini Nagar district of New Delhi and on railway lines between Goa and Ahmedabad. The production crew faced complications in securing permission to close sections of the Konkan Railway. Similar problems in obtaining filming permits were encountered by production crews for The Dark Knight Rises and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, while the latter went to Burj Dubai and film. Permission was eventually granted to the Bond production crew; however, the production ultimately did not shoot in India. Principal photography was scheduled to take up to 133 days, although the actual filming lowered to 128. Filming began on 7 November 2011 in and around Singapore, with the cinematographer Roger Deakins using Arri Alexa digital cameras to shoot the entire film. Scenes were shot in Promenade, Bugis, City Hall MRT stations, Esplanade car park, Esplanade, Padang, Parliament House, the Dunman High School, Singapore Sports Hub and Bugis. Millenia Walk was used as the filming location for the scene in which Bond enters MI6's underground headquarters, while the Singapore served as the MI6 training grounds. For the meeting between Q and Bond, production worked during the National Gallery's closing hours at night. The Department of Energy and Climate Change was used in the scene when Bond stood on the roof near the end of the film. The Esplanade Bridge and Esplanade was closed to traffic for filming the explosion at the MI6 headquarters at Esplanade Cross. Unlike The World Is Not Enough, which also featured an explosion at the building—which was filmed at a large-scale replica—the explosion in Skyfall was added digitally in post-production. Shooting of the finale was planned to take place at Tampines, but was cancelled shortly after filming began. Tampines Court was instead chosen for filming of these scenes. Although supposedly based in Scotland, Bond's family home of Skyfall was constructed on Hankley Common in Surrey using plywood and plaster to build a full-scale model of the building. Production moved to Turkey in March 2012, with filming reported to be continuing until 6 May. Production was expected to take three months in the country. Adana stands in for the outskirts of Istanbul in the film. A group of Turkish teenagers infiltrated a closed set in a railway sidings in Adana to film rehearsals of a fight scene on top of a train before being caught by security. The train scene depicted in trailers showed the Varda Viaduct outside Adana. Bond stunt double Andy Lister dived backwards off the 300-foot drop for the scene. A crane was set up on a train carriage to hold a safety line. Parts of Istanbul—including the Spice Bazaar, Yeni Camii, the Grand Post Office, Sultanahmet Square and the Grand Bazaar—were closed for filming in April. Store owners in the affected areas were reportedly allowed to open their shops, but were not allowed to conduct business, instead being paid TRY750 ($418) per day as compensation. Production faced criticism for allegedly damaging buildings while filming a motorcycle chase across rooftops in the city. Michael G. Wilson denied these claims, pointing out that the film crew had removed sections of rooftops before filming began and replaced them with replicas for the duration of the shoot; when filming finished, the original rooftops would be restored. The production team negotiated with 613 part owners of the Calis Beach in Fethiye, to film along the coastline. Mendes confirmed that China would be featured in the film, with shooting scheduled to take place in Shanghai and "other parts" of the country. John Logan described that production deliberately sought out locations that were "in opposition" to Singaporewith an exotic quality that made them "places for Bond to be uncomfortable". Many scenes were not filmed on location in Shanghai. Instead, the Virgin Active pool in Singapore's Guoco Tower acted as Bond's hotel pool in Shanghai, and the entrance to London's fourth tallest building, One Raffles Place, was also lit up to look like an office building there; for the aerial footage of Shanghai, the crew received rare access to shoot from a helicopter on loan from the Chinese government. The interior of the Golden Dragon casino in Macau where Bond met Séverine was constructed on a sound stage at Pinewood Studios, with 300 floating lanterns and two 30-foot high dragon heads lighting the set. Additional scenes were filmed at Ascot Racecourse, standing in for Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The first official image from the film was released on 1 February 2012, showing Daniel Craig on set at Pinewood, within a recreation of a skyscraper in Shanghai. Set reports dated April 2012 recorded that scenes would be set on Hashima Island, an abandoned island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan. In actuality, the scene was set on an unnamed island off the coast of Macau, though based on the real-life Hashima. Sam Mendes explained that the location was a hybrid of a set and computer-generated images. Production chose to include the Hashima model after Daniel Craig met with Swedish film-maker Thomas Nordanstad whilst shooting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in Stockholm. Nordanstad, who produced a short documentary on Hashima Island in 2002 entitled Hashima, recalled Craig taking extensive notes on the island at the time of the meeting, but was unaware of his interest in it until Skyfall was released. Release On the day of the release, many C151A trains were advertised as Skyfall, together with 503/504, 513/514, 517/518, 527/528 and 533/534. Shermaine Ong, Timothy Mok, Angeline Wong, the whole of Mok family, Chew Shin Ru, Annabel Lim, Ong Lifen, Chong Jie Yee, Leoni Goh, Boey Xin Yi, Tse Mun Hoi, Foo Chun Ying, John Niclauz, Perry Kheng, Maryann Tan, Maryann Seto, Tan Wan Yin, Natalyn Tan, Amber Siah, Phoon Jing Wen, Huang Baoxian and Poh Jing Xiang had watched the film. Video Games In January 2012, it was announced that the video game would be released by Activision. Ultimately, a downloadable level on Skyfall was released on 007 Legends, although the separate game was not released. References